The past few nights I have awoken to these extremely painful bouts of pins and needles in both my arms. It goes from my elbows down to my fingertips. It gets so bad that sleeping is impossible. I have been quite busy at work, painting, hanging drywall, laying flooring. I don't know if that is causing this but I am starting to become concerned. I was wondering if anyone has any feedback.

Yes, in my opinion the symptoms you are having are caused by the recent work you have been doing using your arms. You have overdone it! The same thing happened to me when I was pruning some trees with a heavy pruning tool. I did this for three days, and that's when my arm started aching with a pins and needles feeling. You need to rest your arms and give the over-used muscles time to heal. The pins and needles sensation is caused by the nerves protecting the muscles (I think).
At any rate it is not permanent. Good luck.

We just remodeled a bathroom and a kitchen, laid tile, wallpapered etc. and I was having the same thing with my arms at night while sleeping. The numbness would wake me up. Since all of the remodeling has ended and I quit overusing my arms the numbness has pretty much gone away. It will act up though if I do some pruning or something that involves repetition of the hands. It took probably a good month or two before things were back to normal though. I even wore a carpal tunnel brace to bed at night for a while and that helped keep my hands from going numb and waking me up.

Thanks. What exactly is a carpal tunnel brace? I guess any big name drug store would have one, right? Unfortunately it will be awhile until I can stop using these arms, business is quite good right now. I guess that comes with the territory. I am happy (well I am relieved) that there are common stories like mine. Thank you.

A carpal tunnel brace is used for someone who suffers from carpal tunnel syndrome.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common source of hand numbness and pain. It is caused by increased pressure on a nerve entering the hand through the confined space of the carpal tunnel.

Numbness, tingling and pain in the hand are common. You may experience an electric-like shocking feeling. The thumb side of the hand is usually most involved. Symptoms at night are common and may awaken you from sleep.

I used to have the same problem. When I worked at a child care center I was moving my arms around a lot. I was lifting kids in and out of high chairs, lifting them up and down from the changing table etc. My hands got so they would tingle quite a bit and feel numb and go to sleep on me. Since I don't work there anymore, most of the tingling has gone away. There is a little bit left but not much.